He Signed It: National Defense Authorization Act of 2012

While Americans were celebrating the New Year, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act

Welcome to 2012

From Dateline Zero

Despite raising hopes of a veto, the AP reported that Obama “signed the wide-ranging defense bill into law Saturday despite having ‘serious reservations’ about provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation and prosecution of suspected terrorists.”

It’s important to remember that the president didn’t threaten to veto the bill because it was too draconian, too totalitarian. Rather, he threatened to veto it because he didn’t like the provision that requires military detention of some terrorism suspects. Obama wants the wide-sweeping detention powers to be civilian, and not military.

In other words, Obama wants such powers of detention to be with the White House.

This is important to note, because President Obama added a signing statement to the bill. “Signing statements allow presidents to raise constitutional objections to circumvent Congress’ intent,” the AP article explains.

“Moving forward, my administration will interpret and implement the provisions described below in a manner that best preserves the flexibility on which our safety depends and upholds the values on which this country was founded,” Obama said in the signing statement.

FULL TEXT OF THE SIGNING STATEMENT HERE

Incidentally, we can now ad “signing statements” to the list of things Obama criticized while campaigning for office, but embraced after winning the W.H. This list already includes GITMO, and the Patriot Act.

MORE HERE: “COMING SOON: AMERICANS IN GITMO”

OTHER RECENT HEADLINES ABOUT THE BILL:

Bill allows indefinite detention without trial…
FORBES: ‘If Obama does one thing for the remainder of his presidency let it be a veto of the National Defense Authorization Act’…
Obama drops veto threat, expected to sign…
Obama ‘demanded law apply to U.S. citizens’…
Daily Kos: What the hell is wrong with Al Franken?
Even Al Jazeera asks: ‘How did we get here?’

RELATED:
Secret U.S. Gov’t Panel Can Place U.S. Citizens On ‘Kill List’…
The ‘Obama Doctrine’
Ron Paul condemns assassinating U.S. citizen al-Awlaki…